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How to Keep Coffee Beans Fresh

Despite what you might hear, do not keep your coffee beans in the freezer or fridge. Freezing your beans will make your beans lose a lot of their flavor highlights, resulting in a flattened flavor.

Coffee beans are very perishable, with their flavor and freshness being quickly impacted by exposure to the air and light. A key negative impact for home-based baristas like us is that there is a very noticeable reduction in how much crema can be produced within a week of opening a new package of coffee beans. So either you have to use your new beans within a week, or for longer storage, keep them in a way that will extend their freshness.

The key to keeping your coffee beans as fresh as possible for as long as possible is to keep them in a dark air-tight container. I used to keep my coffee beans vacuum-sealed in a "Bean Vac" coffee canister from Sharper Image. It was battery operated and as soon as you closed the lid a vacuum pump would start up and vacuum seal the canister. It was great but eventually the vacuum seal started to fail and the pump would kick into action on a regular basis including the dark of night!

Vacu Vin
Coffee Saver

For the last several years I have had one of these Vacu Vin Coffee Savers that I got from Amazon, and it keeps my beans as fresh as when I first opened them without any rude-awakenings in the middle of the night or pressure to use up a full pound within a week. No batteries required; just some pump-action from your biceps and a little elbow-grease. That's exercise with your daily habit!